>>10360080I've heard horror stories about Zvezda pre-2010 or so. I've built one pre-2010 kit of theirs, their T-26, and it was honestly fairly pleasant. perhaps not a "great kit" but the build wasn't painful or difficult and the end result was pretty nice. perhaps it's a reverse situation of Tamiya, where everything from them before the 90s was tolerable to good, save their Harrier, which is supposedly one of the worst things ever made.
I've worked on one ICM kit before (2015 Chaika, currently waiting on some metallic paints before I begin painting) and the tooling is completely inexcusable, like I'm building something from the bargain bin by some shitty long-dead European model company from the 50s for $10. many questionable engineering choices, the fit is totally Godawful. I will admit the detail on most of the pieces is quite nice, but some also seem to be lacking significantly.
is this all anecdotal? yes, obviously. does ICM releasing a new tooling in 2015 with THIS level of quality speak very poorly about their quality control and decisionmaking? yes. does it mean all their new kits are like this? no, I have no idea. probably not. but I wouldn't be surprised, because if they approved this, they probably approved lots of other garbage, too.
tldr stop being gay
